Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Readers start early.

They know a good book when they see one.

Let’s call him Joe.

Joe writes a novel about a father-son
fishing trip gone horribly awry when his son Josh disappears at dusk. Dad gets impossibly
lost searching the back country for Josh. Wouldn’t you know, Josh resurfaces a
week later, having taken refuge in another fisherman’s cabin that had been
stocked with a few cans of beans and tuna. Why he stays a whole week is a
mystery. On top of that, no one can find Dad.

And Joe can’t find an agent. He emails his book to a slew of
agents, unsolicited, before giving up and going straight to the publishers. The
publishers reply to Joe’s “Cabin Fever” query with a standard ‘thank you but no
thank you.’

Joe believes in his mystery-thriller and decides to publish
on his own.

Here’s where the real drama begins.

Jillian Keenan is doing a great job getting the word out

about her new memoir, "Sex With Shakespeare."

She knows how to connect with people.

Even her editor showed up to support her at her

recent reading at Half King in NYC.

Joe, kudos to you for believing in your work and investing
your hard-earned money in self-publishing your book. Please. Don’t make the
following mistakes. Mistakes like the ones I’m about to list will almost
certainly guarantee that no one other than your mother will read your book or
take it seriously.

Don’t copyedit and proofread the book yourself. Even
professional editors and writers know they must hire professionals to scour
their book not once but several times before committing it to print. I’ve
received numerous review copies of self-published books with hard-to-ignore
typos. Once, I got a phone call from an author asking me to toss the book into
the trash and wait for a new printed version because there was a typo on the
back cover.

Don’t format the book yourself. You need a professional
graphic designer who specializes in book production to create a readable
format.

Don’t design the cover yourself just because you own a copy
of Publisher. Covers sell print books and ebooks. Invest in a professional
graphic designer with cover design experience.

Don’t do anything until you have a solid marketing plan
you’ve run by some savvy authors and marketers. If you make a book you want to
sell it, right?

Don’t query book reviewers with incomplete sentences,
misspelled words or a recommendation from your pastor.

Don’t create a website that fails to have an “about this
book” page. In fact, the book should be front and center. If you’re going to
nab a reader, you won’t do it on the merits of your bio. It’s going to be
because they are interested in the book. And don’t create a website that has
not been copyedited. And don’t launch an unsightly or clunky website. Hire a
professional or use Squarespace or some other program that makes ugly close to
impossible.

Don’t use a photograph of yourself taken at your bachelor
party, Joe. That’s just wrong.

Don’t expect your local independent bookstore to carry your
book. Shelf space is a gift, not a given. Chances are, and this is sad, no
bookstore will carry your book. Even authors with traditional publishers can’t
get their books in bookstores for more than a couple of weeks, at best.
Thousands of books are published every month. “Cabin Fever” has a short shelf
life, no matter what. That’s why you need a marketing plan with a reliance on
alternative methods of sale including Internet sales.

Don’t fail to express gratitude every time someone reaches
out a helping hand. That includes book store proprietors, librarians and your
ever-loving mother. Kudos to Mom. There’s almost no such thing as an entitled
author, just unschooled wannabes who don’t understand how the game works.

If you don't have a winning personality or you tend

to bully librarians and bookstore proprietors,

consider playing with kittens.

In conclusion, self-publishing holds a valuable place in the
making of books. But at this time, these books can still look and feel
self-published. If so, “Cabin Fever” is doomed. If you want your book to have a
fighting chance, it must look professional, handsome and hard-to-resist.

Self-published authors can be at a disadvantage unless they
come from a publishing background because they don’t understand what it takes
to put out a quality work. Agents and editors provide a much-needed reality
check on all things publishing, from editing to marketing to behavior in
bookstores. If you don’t have an agent at your side helping you find your way,
you owe it to your work and your investment to find out what a professional
author needs to do to get the book noticed and sold.

Joe, if you want people to find “Cabin Fever,” please do
everything in your power to make sure the book doesn’t wind up in a landfill, a
mess of typos. And Joe, you are your book’s key emissary. Be tactical, yes, but
be gracious as you go. Otherwise, forget it.